Most Useful Pokemon

[Geewithabee]

What, in your opinion or your experience, is just the most useful Pokemon to have on the team?

My vote goes to Zigzagoon.

He learns Headbutt really early, it has 105 power thanks to STAB plus a 30% to make the foe flinch.
It's well known that he's a good HM slave.
They're found practically everywhere and are easy to capture.
His movelist has Belly Drum.
He has the Pickup ability. He'll just bring you free stuff! In Ruby/Sapphire in particular, this includes Nuggets, Ultra Balls, Proteins, and Rare Candies!
And he's a cutie-wootie fwuffy-wuffy, yes he is, yes he is.

 

[Devalue]

Depends on the game. Removed Hidden Machines in later games. Values moves like Haze more in Sun/Moon.

Leans towards Hawlucha.
- Good offensive stats (base 92 Attack and 118 Speed) without needing to evolve
- Solid type coverage with Technical Machines and Move Tutors (Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Zen Headbutt, U-Turn, Poison Jab, X-Scissor, and ...Dig?)
- Excellent non-attacking moves: Encore (with excellent speed), Feather Dance, Taunt, Swords Dance, and Roost. Learns almost all of them through level-up. Sets up easily.
- Cut, Fly, and Strength in X/Y. (Good luck finding room for those.)

 

[Geewithabee]

You're right, it does kind of depend on where you're at in the game series. For my entry above, it's mainly at a point in time before HMs were phased out. It's during that era that I think Ziggy had the capacity to be the single most useful Pokemon.

However, you make an extremely good case for Hawlucha. I've always liked him, too, especially his shiny.

 

[Mindless_Phoenix]

Arceus, its legit a god.

 

[Corveone]

-Super easy to catch at the beginning of the game and raise.
-Unlike many other early-game Pokémon, it stays relevant and strong through the entire game.
-Has a good stat spread that gives it a clear role, allows the player easy access to a fast and strong physical attacker without having to worry about EVs.
-Learns two valuable STABs: Quick Attack and Wing Attack, below level 10.
-Gets first evo at level 14, while acquiring one of the most useful Abilities in-game.
-Gets Close Combat at level 34 to counter three of the types it's not good against.
-STAB Brave Bird below level 50.
-STAB Return if you have the TM.

You just can't go wrong with Staraptor. Just look at that face, this kamikaze bird takes battling so seriously it will grow and learn good stuff fast, it will hit like a truck and one-shot things at the cost of its own safety, because it wants you to win.

 

[Sheep]

Zigzagoon and Bidoof are super useful for HMs, they were almost always on my teams in RSE and DPPt! Gold medal for the Pokémon I pretty much never used in battle aha.

For battles, Metagross, Swampert, and Raichu have been absolutely incredibly for me. Metagross for its many resistances and great stats, Swampert for the excellent movepool/coverage, and Raichu for getting Thunderbolt so early and being massively helpful with it (especially Alolan). These three stand out as being one of the most useful Pokémon to me. ❤️

Drednaw was my ace in SwSh too.

 

[(Feebas)]

I'm going to have to agree with Sheep here. I think Bidoof's line was one of my most useful Pokemon in 4th generation, especially when it came to HMs and their ability to learn most of them. I always felt bad using them just for HMs, though ;_;

Whenever I start a Pokemon game, I will usually always go for a strong water type. Being that they vary game to game, it's going to either be the water starter, or one of the first water Pokes you can catch while surfing/fishing (Gyarados, Starmie, Sharpedo, etc.). Though they're not the strongest by any means, I've always found luck whenever I utilize them on the team early in the games (think Blastoise with the gym line up in the Kanto region). Post game, though, I will almost always have either a Dragonite or other regional Pseudo.

Bibarel taking a break after I just used it for Surf, Waterfall, Cut, and Strength back to back... *^__^